This list is full of twists and turns. I didn’t expect to be listening to an hour and a half of Gospel music, but here we are. ‘Amazing Grace’ was recorded live in January 1972 at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, with Reverend James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir performing alongside Aretha Franklin. Franklin’s voice will convert even the staunchest heathen into a believer.

‘Mama’s Gun’ was the second album by the Queen Of Neo Soul, Erykah Badu. The album follows the both the birth of her son, Seven, after which she took some time off to be a full time mother, and the breakdown of the relationship with his father, Andre Benjamin (AKA Andre 3000 from Outkast). Outkast would famously release the single, ‘Ms. Jackson,’ based on their breakup. The album was recorded at Electric Lady Studios, Jimi Hendrix’s studio in New York City and was recorded almost back-to-back with D’Angelo’s ‘Voodoo,’ featuring many of the same musicians.

Damn. What an album! ‘DAMN.’ was my #2 favourite album of 2017. After the release of his landmark album, ‘To Pimp A Butterfly,’ anticipation was high for the follow up record. Just under two years after the release of that record, Lamar dropped this album with one week’s notice. An album so considered and well thought out that it could be played forwards or backwards while retaining the narrative (Lamar would eventually release a version of the album with the tracklisting running in reverse order).

If drums are the heartbeat of a song and bass is the soul, this album is all heart and soul. My initial thought when listening to this was about how high the drums and bass were mixed. I wondered who the players were on the record as they were standouts for me.

After Ice Cube’s acrimonious split with N.W.A. he immediately moved to record a solo record. The result was this, one of the most defining Hip Hop records of the ‘90s, in fact, of all time. Cube hooked up with The Bomb Squad, the production crew behind Public Enemy and together the put together an incredibly enjoyable record.

‘Diamond Life’ is the debut album by former model and backing vocalist-turned-frontwoman, Sade Adu. To be fair, Sade is a essentially band named after its singer. The album opens with one of the smoothest sax melodies of all time. ‘Smooth Operator’ is a song I remember constantly being on radio when I was a kid. The album takes its name from this song; “Diamond life, loverboy.”